Delta Modern

presented by

Jennifer Baughn, Mississippi Department of Archives & History

Thursday, August 27

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm
Program @ 6:00 pm

The “modernistic” Sunflower Grocery, designed by Harold Kaplan, opened in 1959 in Greenville.

“White Pillars” is a Neoclassical Colonial home designed in 1948 for the Nash family by Harold Kaplan. The traditional architecture is in contrast to many of Kaplan’s Modernist public architecture.

Lakeport Plantation’s monthly history talk, Lakeport Legacies, will feature Jennifer Baughn, chief architectural historian at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. Mrs. Baughn, in her talk titled, “Delta Modern,” will discuss Mid-Century architecture (1930s-1960s) in the Mississippi Delta. At Mid-Century, traditional and modern styles were competing architectural visions. In the Delta, the period is exemplified by two architects: Leland native Harold Kaplan and Jackson’s N. W. Overstrett. Kaplan’s Modern designs for public buildings, like T. L. Weston High School (1954), are a contrast to his designs for traditional Colonial private homes, like White Pillars (1948) in Greenville’s Gamyn Park neighborhood. Drawing from examples across the Delta, Baughn will discuss the region’s most interesting Modern architecture such as Greenville’s Coleman High School and Delta State’s Young-Mauldin Cafeteria. Exemplifying the optimism and booming economy of the decades after World War II, Mississippi’s Modernist architecture is gaining the appreciation of both historians and architecture buffs for its clean lines, functional planning, and futuristic detailing.

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Annie Read Reeves’ Chicot County Civil War Diary, 1861-1863

presented by

Dr. Blake Wintory, Lakeport Plantation

Thursday, July 30

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm
Program @ 6:00 pm

The Rossmere Plantation, founded in 1847 by George Read IV, was located on the east side of Lake Chicot south of Stuart’s Island. In 1861, the plantation had over 1300 acres and 61 slaves. One of those slaves, Lucretia Alexander, was interviewed by the WPA in the 1930s.

Annie Read Reeves, a widow with four children, left New Castle, Delaware in October 1861 during the first year of the Civil War. They arrived at the Rossmere Plantation on Old River Lake in Chicot County on November 22. Annie and her brother George Read IV (1812-1859) were the great-grandchildren of George Read I, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Her late brother founded Rossmere in 1846 and her sister-in-law, Susan (Chapman) Read, still resided there in 1861. Reeves’ diary (1861-1863) details her trip to Chicot County and experiences during the Civil War. Wintory will discuss the diary and what we know about the Read family and plantation from other sources: deeds, tax records, Susan Read’s letters, a memoir by Annie’s daughter, and a slave narrative.

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Absentee Masters of the Mississippi River

Kenneth Rayner, a resident of North Carolina, purchased a 538 acre Chicot County plantation in 1845. Writing to a friend, he objected to the land being “in the state of Arkansas” and complained “I will never leave my wife so long again.” Two years later, visiting the plantation during the December harvest, he praised his overseer, “I think my overseer a first rate manager…he has, picked, and packed about 220 bales of cotton” despite bad weather. (Image by Matthew Brady; courtesy of East Carolina Manuscript Collection.)

Many masters along the Mississippi River did not reside on their plantations. Instead they relied on overseers to run the day-to-day operations. The absence of a white family in the “big house” could make the plantation a much different place than one with an owner-resident. Dr. Kelly Houston Jones will discuss her work on R.C. Ballard and other area plantation owners who resided away from their holdings, and what those arrangements would have meant for enslaved people living on those plantations.

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Ms. Stewart, pictured here in the 3rd grade, became interested in her own family’s history after hearing her grandmother’s stories about her great-grandmother.

Rhonda Stewart, a genealogy and history specialist at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, will discuss how to research African American family history in Arkansas. Oral histories are excellent places to start building a family history and can be confirmed with local history resources and genealogy databases available on Ancestry.com and other websites. Part of Ms. Stewart’s presentation will focus on two examples of family history in Chicot County. The Butler Center is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock.

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Images and History of Chicot County: Book Project Update

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Lake Village’s downtown and lakefront around 1920, probably taken from second floor of the Tushek Building. Visible are Gaines Cafeteria along Lake Chicot and Watt Orton’s Livery Stable. (Bill and Jeanine Session Collection, Lakeport Plantation)

Lakeport Plantation is nearly finished with a pictorial history of Chicot County with Arcadia Publishing. During the past year of research, we have made some interesting discoveries, including the photograph above of downtown Lake Village. Come see, learn or share a memory about Chicot County’s history.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031
lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held at the Lakeport Plantation focusing on history in the Delta. Lakeport Legacies meets on one of the last Thursdays of the spring and summer months at 5:30 p.m. with the program starting at 6:00 p.m. All events are free and open to the public. Guests are asked to RSVP. The Lakeport Plantation is located at 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas. For more information call 870.265.6031 or visit http://lakeport.astate.edu.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, the Lakeport Plantation will join the Arkansas Civil War Commission in a ringing of bells 13 times at 13:00 (1 p.m.). In 1860, Chicot County was home to 7,512 slaves; Lakeport claimed 155 that year. Lakeport is honored to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery in Arkansas and the rest of the United States.

Tuesday, April 14, 1:00 p.m.

Lakeport Plantation, 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, AR 71653

Everyone attending is encouraged to bring a bell to let freedom ring!

This local event is part of a statewide initiative sponsored by the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission to celebrate this historic event.

Doc Hollywood: The Archaeology of Health and Healing at Hollywood Plantation

The Taylor House or Hollywood Plantation (now a UAM Heritage Property) was built in the 1840s as a second residence for Dr. John M. Taylor and his wife. Dr. Taylor received his medical certificate in 1841. A number of medicine bottles were recovered from the 1880s ell kitchen, yet it has been noted that Dr. Taylor never practiced medicine. In this presentation Dr. Barnes will consider whether archeological research can provide evidence of Dr. Taylor’s medical practice or insight into health and healing in southeast Arkansas more generally.

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

UAM’s Historic Properties and Tourism in Southeast Arkansas

Dr. John Kyle Day (University of Arkansas at Monticello)

Law office of Gov. X. O. Pindall at Arkansas City and the Taylor House near Winchester are two historic properties recently acquired by UAM

The University of Arkansas at Monticello is engaged in plans to create a Southeast Arkansas Heritage Trail anchored by its three historic properties: WW II Italian POW Camp near Monticello (Drew County), the law office of Arkansas Governor Xenophon Overton Pindall in Arkansas City (Desha County), and the ca. 1846 Taylor House at the Hollywood Plantation near Winchester (Drew County). Dr. John Kyle Day, associate professor of history, will discuss the university’s plans to save, preserve, and interpret these important historic sites for students and the public.

Please RSVP to this Free Event870.265.6031lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Wealthy planters, like Chicot County’s Elisha Worthington, benefited from the work of the slaves they owned. Worthington, the largest slaveholder in Arkansas, owned 543 slaves and four plantations, including the Sunnyside Plantation. Photo courtesy of Annie Paden.

In the antebellum period Chicot County’s economy was dominated by slavery and cotton. The labor of slaves, who cleared vast forests and cultivated cotton, helped make Chicot County one of the wealthiest places in the Unites States. Slave life in the peculiar institution was complex; while not free, slaves developed their own culture, married, worshiped and, at times, sought the freedoms they were denied. Kelly Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arkansas, will explore the world of slaves and slavery in Chicot County through court records, the census, newspapers and WPA narratives.

Please RSVP to this Free Event870.265.6031lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.